1. Field of the invention
The present invention relates generally to the field of medical implements and, more particularly, to the field of medical implements configured for holding hypodermic syringe needle caps, especially while the needles are inserted into the caps or while the caps are installed over the needles so as to enable capping of the needles without having to hold the needle caps directly in one's hand.
2. Background Discussion
Most surgical procedures--both medical and dental--require the use of hypodermic syringes, either for the injecting of anesthetics, drugs, antibiotics, and/or other medical fluids into a patient's body or for the extraction of fluid samples from the patient's body. Hypodermic syringe needles need to be kept sterile prior to use and are, of necessity, extremely sharp. Consequently, such needles are commonly are provided with removable and replaceable needle caps which, when installed on the needles keep the needles sterile (or at least clean). Installed needle caps also protect users and handlers of the needles or hypodermic syringes on which the needles are installed, against accidental needlesticks. Thus, when syringe needles are being installed onto or removed from hypodermic syringes and when the syringes with needles installed are not in actual use, the capping of the needles is preferred for hygienic and safety reasons.
For many years bloodbourne diseases have been known to be transmittable from an infected individual to a non-infected individual by certain contact with the infected individual's blood, for example, if the infected individual's blood enters an open cut, sore or wound on the previously non-infected individual's body. Surgeons and other medical personnel who may contact a patient's or injured person's blood typically (except, perhaps, in cases of serious emergency) wear rubber surgical gloves which not only protect the patient or injured person against infection by germs and bacteria from the treating person's hands, but also protect the treating person from being infected, through cuts on the hands, from possibly being infected by the patient's or injured person's blood.
Needlesticks by hypodermic syringe needles used on patients (or other individuals) are another means whereby bloodbourne diseases can be transmitted from a patient to an individual treating the patient. In this regard, surgical gloves usually provide negligible protection for the wearers against accidental needlesticks.
Until a few years ago, the principal risk to healthcare professionals from accidental needlesticks was generally considered to be the contracting of hepatitis from an infected patient. As is well known Hepatitis B is still one of the major unresolved infectious disease problems of our time. It remains a threat to the public as well as to the health care community.
However, with the onset of AIDS (acquired imunodeficiency syndrome)--a fatal, bloodbourne disease for which no vaccination against nor cure for is presently known--a few years ago, the health risks associated with accidental needlesticks by used hypodermic syringe needles have escalated dramatically. In this regard, the sharing of hypodermic needles by users of controlled substances is well known to be a major factor in the rapid spread of AIDS. Thus, in spite of the great care exercised by healthcare professionals, accidental needlesticks by used hypodermic needles have been responsible for contracting AIDS. For example, in one widely-publicized case, a doctor reportedly contracted AIDS as a result of receiving a needlestick from an unseen and apparently improperly disposed hypodermic syringe needle. As another example, in a recent, reverse-twist case, a dental patient is believed to have contracted AIDS from a dentist who reportedly had AIDS, the theory (at least presently) being that the dentist may have experienced an accidental needlestick from the hypodermic syringe needle subsequently used to administer an anesthetic to the patient.
The risk of contracting or transmitting AIDS via accidental needlesticks presents healthcare professionals (as well as non-professionals, such as family members, who have to give injections, for example, insulin injections, to others) with a serious dilemma. On the one hand, the capping of hypodermic syringe needles whenever the associated syringe is not actually being used or when disposing of the needle (or entire syringe, as the case may be) is obviously highly desirable to prevent accidental needlesticks and the health risks associated therewith. Yet, on the other hand, the frequent capping and uncapping of hypodermic syringe needles increases the risk of accidental needlesticks for the individuals performing the capping operation. Moreover, the risk of an individual receiving an accidental needlestick during the needle recapping operation is greatly increased when the individual doing the recapping is physically or mentally distracted by other matters, such as the course of a medical treatment or operation and when the needle cap is held in one hand while the needle in inserted by the other hand into the cap (or while the manually-held cap is installed over the needle).
Many healthcare professionals have apparently concluded that the risks of receiving accidental needlesticks during needle recapping operations out weigh the risk of receiving an accidental needlestick from uncapped needles. In support of this conclusion, a current article on AIDS which appeared in a leading newspaper reported that many doctors, out of concern for contracting AIDS from accidental needlesticks, have opted for not recapping the hypodermic syringe needles they use.
Recognizing the very real concern of healthcare professionals regarding the present risks of accidental needlesticks, at least two types of holders for hypodermic syringe needle caps are known to have been advertised in trade journals. One such needle cap holder resembles the hilt portion of a sword in that it has a handle having a wide, disc-shaped protective hand-shield surrounding the cap receiving recess which extends downwardly into the handle. Accordingly is when the user inserts a hypodermic syringe needle into the cap he or she misses the cap opening with a needle, the needle merely hits the shield instead of the user's hand. The other advertised type of cap holder comprises a cylinder having a cap-receiving recess, the base of the cylinder being weighted so that the cylinder does not have to be held during the needle recapping operation. Alternatively, the base of the cylinder may be adhered to a surface, such as a table, tray or wall, by an adhesive strip on the base.
These advertised needle cap holders are too new for their efficacy or acceptance by healthcare professionals to have been determined. However, it appears that there may be difficulties associated with the sterilization, at least by commonly available means such as autoclaving, of such needle cap holders. In this regard, it can be appreciated that the cap holder can easily become contaminated by being handled by healthcare professionals whose gloved hands have come into contact with patients' body fluids (for example, blood and saliva), and from fluids on or discharged from the hypodermic syringe needles during the recapping operation. Moreover, any needle cap holder must be easy and convenient to use during surgical procedures or they simply will not be used. Furthermore, it goes without saying that the needle cap holders must substantially reduce the risk of accidental needlesticks during recapping operations--if the use of a cap holder is awkward and difficult to use, the risk of accidental needle sticks, perhaps in areas other than the users' hands, may be increased rather than decreased.
It is, therefore, a principal objective of the present invention to provide a hypodermic syringe needle cap holder which is convenient to use, requires no awkward movements, is of a familiar nature to healthcare professionals and is readily sterilized with commonly available sterilization methods and apparatus. Moreover, the present invention provides a needle cap holder which minimizes handling of the caps and which substantially reduces the risk of accidental needlesticks during the needle capping operation.